Prosecco DOC reports ‘exceptional’ harvest

The Tutelary Consortium for Prosecco DOC has announced an “exceptional” vintage for this year’s harvest.

At its final stages, this year’s harvest was generous in terms of both quantity and quality as opposed to the poor yields of 2017, the Consortium said today.

The “more-than-ever favourable climate” had allowed an “exceptional” harvest for everyone, said president Stefano Zanette

“It is crucial to emphasize how our appellation follows precise disciplinary rules, which set the maximum yield for each vineyard as well as the grapes’ organoleptic characteristics. According to the initial data we received, the yield met our expectations. During exceptional harvests like this one, the disciplinary rules also allow producers to access a reserve harvest, which will provide an additional supply to satisfy market demand during difficult vintages with low yields, like 2017,” he said.

Looking forward, Zanette said the Consortium was “certainly” able to fulfil one of its main responsibilities – reassuring markets by guaranteeing the balance between demand and supply, he added.

“Thanks to the planning model the Consortium has implemented since 2011, we will keep a positive trend without price tension.”

On an international scale, Prosecco DOC said markets seemed “perfectly aligned” with the Consortium’s production planning, adding worldwide sales of the Italian fizz had grown 5% in the first nine months of the year.

In addition to reaching balance between demand and supply, Prosecco DOC said it had also seen an increase in value and the beginning of international market diversification.

“The UK, US and Germany alone used to buy two thirds of all available Prosecco - a high-risk circumstance if we consider situations like Brexit and the dread of trade war with the US, which led us to extend our efforts to target other key markets,” said Zanette, adding this strategy had started to pay off this year.

“For instance, in the UK, while exported volume slightly declined by 2.3%, we increased sales value by 4.9% - this is evidence of a successful strategy, enabling the development of markets considered as ‘emergent’, which help us spread the share of exports around the world, lowering the risks of an excessive concentration.”

Zanette highlighted Russia where, after declining for a few years, orders increased by 28%, while Taiwan recorded a growth of 115%, Poland by 84.1% and Belgium by 63.9%.

“An interesting trend has been reported from France, a country in which, as a sign of respect of their sparkling wine production tradition, we hadn’t initiated promotional campaigns. Yet, our transalpine cousins increased orders by 26%, becoming our fourth biggest market,” he said.

Other relatively new markets having performed well include Australia - up 38.5% and Sweden where orders increased 40.4%.